Tianjin University team successfully created the first functional semiconductor graphene

News from this site on January 4, according to China Business News, a research team recently created the world's first functional semiconductor made of graphene, and the relevant paper was published in the authoritative journal Nature. The paper is titled "Ultrahigh-mobility semiconducting epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide". The co-first authors of the paper are Zhao Jian, Ji Peixuan, Li Yaqi, Li Rui and The remaining signed authors are mainly from the research team of Tianjin University in China, as well as researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States.

Team instructor Ma Lei, chair professor of Tianjin University and executive director of Tianjin International Research Center for Nanoparticles and Nanosystems, said that the research was sponsored by Tianjin University It is led by teams rather than foreign universities, which is different from online rumors. The research results were discovered in the second half of 2021, and the corresponding paper will be written in 2022. The research direction was proposed by one of the signed authors, Walt A. de Heer, and the Chinese research team, led by Marley, undertook the main research and research work.

This site notes that this discovery comes at the right time. Most of today's electronic devices are made of silicon. However, with the continuous improvement of computing speed and the continuous shrinkage of device sizes, silicon is approaching its limit. Semiconductors made of graphene have many advantages compared with traditional silicon semiconductors, are compatible with existing microelectronic processing techniques, and are ideal materials that can replace silicon.

The research team successfully used a special furnace to grow graphene on silicon carbide wafers, a breakthrough. They prepared a material called epitaxial graphene, which is a single layer of graphene grown on the surface of a silicon carbide crystal. The researchers found that when epitaxial graphene is prepared properly, it is able to form chemical bonds with silicon carbide and begin to form the semiconductor material made from graphene.

According to the team's measurements, they found that the graphene semiconductor has 10 times the mobility of silicon, meaning electrons move within it with extremely low resistance. Such properties will lead to faster calculations and more efficient electron transport.

However, Dr. Marley said that despite great progress in research, it will take a long time to apply graphene semiconductors to industrialization. He predicts that it will take another 10 to 15 years to truly realize the commercialization of graphene semiconductors. Currently, Dr. Marais and his team are working to extend the graphene semiconductor material onto larger-sized silicon carbide substrates.

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